Little Hula Heaven: Dabur, Vatika Coconut Hair Oil

Sunday night something wonderful and rare happened to me, I was left with the car! Yay! Armed with a few dollars, the car and my boredom of staying home all the time, I went to the first place I could think, ASIAN MARKET!!! Whoo-hoo! In actuality, I was left with the car so I could take it to a Mexican llantera shop to change the tire.

Hard at work in the sugarcane fields

Believe it or not, being in an Asian market makes me feel at home. I find comfort and closeness to the people and food there. Strange, I know.

During the Plantation era of Hawai'i, beginning around the early 1850's, the Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, Spanish and Filipinos all came to work in the sugar cane, pineapple, macadamia and coffee fields.

In fact, it was on the Plantation fields where "Pidgin" was born. Pidgin English is a dialect used by the local people of Hawaii. It is not the same as the native language of our people, which is Hawaiian. Pidgin is a culmination of English and other languages that was spoken on the Plantation fields by the workers to help communicate with one another. A Japanese man could talk to the Puerto Rican man, a Spaniard could talk to a Korean, so on-so forth. As hard as I try, I don't think I'll ever kick my pidgin accent. Although my boyfriend is getting better at understanding what I'm saying, I still need to translate once in awhile.

A mix of ethnicities

If you have never heard Hawaiian Pidgin before, check out this video.

Needless to say our own Hawaiian culture was heavily influenced by others during this time, especially the food. I miss local Hawaiian food terribly!!! I'm salivating just thinking about it.

All the 'Ono (delicious) food I grew up with. Any local of the Islands would recognize these dishes

I tend to get side-tracked and go off on a tangent, sorry about that. That was a nice little history lesson though, wouldn't you say?

Anyways, I finally made it to Asiana Market.

<---- Asiana Market. Phoenix, AZ

Many of the people I see here, look like they could've been my neighbors in Pearl City and Kalihi and most of the ingredients to the dishes I grew up with are not found in American supermarkets so I immediately identify with everything and everyone in any Asian market. I get especially giddy because I get to see my desi (Indian) folk! I am the biggest dork when it comes to that, my boyfriend is so shame to walk around with me. Haha! I also get a kick out of the innocent signs and advertisements as well.

"Raping paper .79 cents!?! No way, I'm getting 20."

Look at this guy? Isn't he cute!?

After walking around the store for a bit, I came across the Indian Beauty section. The smells of the different incense, powders and oils were incredible, I imagine the entire country smells like this. Looking around for bit I saw a selection of hair oils. There were about 3 or 4 different brands. I immediately recognized, Dabur. I had two bottles of Dabur, Amla Hair Oil when I was living in Hawaii. I'm not sure why it didn't make it to Phoenix with me but I really do miss them, so I decided to buy another one. One bottle in particular jumped out at me!

Dabur's, Vatika Coconut Hair Oil's ingredients include Amla, henna, coconut oil, lemon, neem and rosemary, just to name a few. All chosen carefully to provide natural nourishment for hair and to help improve scalp condition and control dandruff. Hair is stronger, thicker and shinier.

I couldn't help but want it and with a price tag of less than $2.00, I was sold.

My hair after applying my new hair oil

My hair is naturally course, frizzy and dry or "Coconut husk." as my mom and I would joke. Last night I washed my hair and decided to try my new hair oil. I added a few drops to my palm and rubbed my hands together to get the oil nice and warm. I applied it to my damp hair and combed through. I personally love the smell. It's not too overpowering, as the Amla hair oil can be. The next day I checked my hair and it seems calmer and a lot shinier. So far so good! I'm going to continue to use my new oil for the next month or so and give a review.

However, with over a million heads of hair like this....